Cryptocurrency and AI Fuel Massive Tech Build-Up

A recent investigation has uncovered that three tech giants are set to build more water-hungry data centers in some of the world's driest areas. Experts warn that communities could suffer.

The nonprofit SourceMaterial used local news reports and industry sources, Baxtel and Data Center Map, to document 632 active or under-development data centers from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, according to The Guardian, which was also involved in the investigation.

It found the companies intended to increase the number of data centers they own worldwide by 78 percent, with projects planned in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Many of those centers will be in the arid regions.

The demand for data centers — essentially used to power a myriad of digital services — has been skyrocketing with the emergence of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.

Data centers can gobble up more energy than entire countries, leading at times to higher utility rates and strained electrical grids that can lead to blackouts, as well as spewing planet-warming pollution into the atmosphere if their power source relies on dirty fuels.

What's more, just a midsize data center can require up to 300,000 gallons of water each day. With a warming climate, driven by human activities, contributing to increased water scarcity and making its availability more volatile, adding more data centers to the mix could have a troublesome ripple effect across multiple systems, including our food supply.

Lorena Jaume-Palasí, founder of the Ethical Tech Society, told The Guardian that "resilience from a resource perspective is going to be very difficult" for populations grappling with water scarcity, including in Spain, which is on "the verge of ecological collapse," even as Amazon plans to add a fourth data center to the Aragon region.

Cryptocurrency and AI both have the potential to contribute to a greener and safer future, with companies using digital currency to fund projects like reforestation and ocean cleanups, and AI leading to more accurate weather forecasting, among other things.

For their part, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have said they plan to be "water positive" by the end of the decade, per the Guardian. All have also invested in clean-energy projects, including to support AI operations. However, critics remain skeptical they'll live up to some of their promises.